Back and forth

"Van het kastje naar de muur gestuurd worden" is a Dutch proverb which basically means that you are being send from one place to the other. Yesterday, it struck me that his particular proverb could have well been invented here in Sudan. An intended quick visit to the local take- away restaurant across the street always turns out to be more complicated than expected. First of all you need to get your order-receipt at the special order-receipt-counter. With your receipts you have to go to the different inside counters for 1) burgers 2) fish 3) samosa or 4) crispy chicken. If you want to have pizza, juice or ice-cream you have to go to one of the counters outside the building. And for your information, the self-service salad bar is found inside next to the order-receipt-counter. You can imagine that you have to plan your schedule for ordering well in advance, depending on the amount of people waiting for each counter. And take into account that you have to get a new receipt if you want or have to change your order at some point in the process. It maybe sounds like a frustrating process, but the opposite is true! Because of the amount of walking around you have to do, you really have the opportunity to meet and talk to people. They even ask you where you have been, if you haven't shown your face there for a day or two. A friendly way to arrange social control, I would say. Apparently this back-and-forth running has multiple purposes after all!

Celebrations with coffee

How to celebrate your birthday in Sudan? Out of the dozen options Frank chose to invite all his colleagues in Khartoum for a nice and tasty Sudanese BBQ.  The venue was a cosy open-air restaurant with a lovely green garden with exotic plants and flowers. This beautiful place was one of those ‘hidden treasures’ that even none of the local staff members knew about, while it is literally just around the corner from the office.  Everyone, including the children of the staff members, really seemed to enjoy the spacious garden, the freshly made juices, grilled meat and the salads. As a traditional closure of the party gathering , a few of us moved to the special ‘coffee corner’ of the garden: a characteristic umbrella-covered space with low leather ‘chairs’, bright red small tables and (last but not least) our very own Ethiopian coffee lady! She showed us how this famous typical coffee is being made, using the traditional colourful coffee pots and charcoal. Frank and I never drink coffee, but the smile of the coffee lady, the tempting smell of the spiced coffee and the fact that it after all was Frank’s birthday, made us taste it. It turned out to be a delicious mile stone to celebrate the beginning of the new life (after 40…). Happy birthday, Frank!

The morning after..

A few nights ago, it rained heavenly! Naturally, rain is very refreshing for everything and everyone here in the North of Sudan. Unfortunately the morning after, you mostly find the unpleasant consequences of these rare waterfalls. Besides the watery roads I told you about earlier, it also seems to be an unwritten ‘rule’ that problems with the electricity occur after every rainy night. In Kosti, Frank has experienced quite some ‘electric fire works’ in the last few weeks: exploding light bulbs, lightening electricity cables next to the house and regular breakdowns of the electricity network in the house and office.  Here in Khartoum, I have had some problems with my internet connection since last week’s rainy night. It seems to be a bit better today, so I will quickly try to catch up with the blogs you been missed out on! You never know what tonight’s possible rains may bring; not to mention the consequences the morning after.

Staying tuned

Although we both learned a few words Arabic, unfortunately it is still impossible to follow whole conversations in this fascinating language. Especially the sports commentary on Arabic TV is extremely hard to follow. Like all commentators in the world, they seem to talk faster and faster when it's getting more exciting and competitive. A bit tricky when you want to get full updates on the 'Tour de France'. In order for us to 'stay tuned', Frank searched for a Dutch radio channel that does the broadcasting of the Tour. The internet radio App on his Ipad came in very handy! (technology!..). So, the whole afternoon we were enjoying the nice images of the cyclists in France on Arabic TV, while we were listening to the Dutch commentators chatting the time away. The fact that they don't run entirely simultaneously, sometimes gives some funny effects: we already know who the winner is, while the Dutch commentator is still excitedly shouting and asking who will cross the finish line first. :) We will definitely stay tuned during the coming sport events!